MPs to probe illegal charges in schools
A student, accompanied by her father, reporting to Form One at Moi Girls School Nairobi on January 13, 2020. Education PS Julius Jwan has announced that Form One students will report to school on May 04, 2022.
Even as the dust settles on this year’s Form One admissions, parents are still reeling from the many hidden charges slapped on them by schools.
Their harrowing experiences have prompted lawmakers to look into allegations of school charges, which were not included in the official admission letters.
MPs are expected to meet with Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha next week to discuss the many charges that headteachers spring on parents every time schools reopen.
Lawmakers are puzzled that most schools ask parents to pay the extra charges, not into official accounts used for normal school fees, but through M-Pesa and other accounts.
Ms Florence Mutua (Busia), the chairperson of the National Assembly’s Education Committee, said the illegal fees are a matter of concern and MPs will scrutinise them.
“We will look into it because we only have one place — the Ministry of Education — where instructions on school fees come from. If there are schools setting internal fees without the approval of the ministry, then it is illegal,” she said. These extra charges, said Mr Jared Okello (Nyando), drain parents’ pockets further.
Additional charges
“Why are parents subjected to additional charges which were not in the official calling letter?” Mr Okello posed.
The committee will also consider a petition by Kilifi North MP Owen Baya on fees charged in primary schools for internal exams. The fees, he said in the petition, disadvantage pupils from poor backgrounds, who are denied access to the exams if they fail to pay.
“The government only pays Sh1,420 per pupil in primary (school), which caters for tuition. This forces schools to charge for exams,” he said. In June, the government slashed Sh8,000 for students in national and extra-county schools in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Nyeri, Thika and Eldoret, which are classified as Category A.
Other public secondary boarding schools, including extra-county schools in Category B that are not in the five towns above, will now pay Sh35,000, down from Sh40,535.
Crash programme
In a June 16 memo, the ministry says parents with children in Category A schools will pay Sh45,000 in the next financial year in what Dr Jwan said is due to the short nature of this academic year, which will run for 30 instead of the usual 39 weeks.
The shorter term is a result of the crash programme to recover lost time when schools closed in March last year and reopened in January. This year and 2022 will have four school terms each instead of the usual three. The new calendar year began on July 26. The second term will start on October 11 and the third on January 3, 2022.
But despite the directive on fees, some schools maintained their previous fees structures.
A fortnight ago, the Nation revealed that some principals do not seek the ministry’s approval for the extra charges, including so-called “motivation” fees, because they cannot justify them.
Headteachers have devised new ways of squeezing money from parents by overcharging for uniforms in collaboration with suppliers. Some schools are reported to have entered into deals with uniform suppliers, who allegedly pay kickbacks to principals.
